Chesapeake Lays 15% of Workforce, Most at Oklahoma City Headquarters

The filing was made after the close of regular trading in New York, where the stock settled 1.2 percent higher at $6.79.

Earlier this month Chesapeake also reached an out-of-court settlement with Fort Worth investor Ed Bass and 20 other landowners on the eve of a trial over millions of dollars in unpaid royalties from natural gas drilling. Baird upgraded shares of Chesapeake Utilities from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $52.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, August 10th. Simmons lowered Chesapeake Energy from an overweight rating to a neutral rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 21st.

In the same time horizon, USA companies have cut more than 86,000 jobs directly attributable to falling oil prices, according to outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. On average, analysts predict that Chesapeake Utilities will post $2.76 earnings per share for the current fiscal year. Under his direction, the company’s debt load ballooned to more than $16 billion, and shareholders began to fret about his appetite for risk and enthusiasm for spending on borrowed money.

Chesapeake’s 2015 capex is $3.6 billion. Today the entire company is valued at less than $5 billion as measured by market capitalization. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.36 EPS.

More layoffs could come in the oil and gas industry and related service sectors if commodity prices don’t improve substantially and soon, he said.

Mr. McClendon left Chesapeake two years ago. The Organization also own petroleum and natural gas marketing and natural gas gathering and compression companies. The marketing, gathering and compaction operating section accounts for gathering promotion and compaction of natural gas oil and NGL.